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On September 24, 1991, FBISpecial Agent Sean Archer survives an assassination attempt by freelance terrorist and homicidal sociopath Castor Troy, but the bullet penetrates Archer's chest and strikes his son Michael, killing the boy.

Six years later, Archer's vendetta against Troy culminates in his team's ambush of Troy and his younger brother and accomplice, Pollux at the Los Angeles International Airport. Troy goads Archer with knowledge of a bomb located somewhere in the city set to go off in a few days, but he is knocked into an irreversible coma before Archer can learn more.

Archer affirms that the threat is real, but is unable to convince Pollux to reveal where the bomb is located. At the suggestion of his partner Tito Biondi and Special Ops specialist Dr. Hollis Miller, Archer secretly undergoes a highly experimental face transplant procedure by Dr. Malcolm Walsh to take on Troy's face, voice, and appearance. Archer is taken to the same high-security prison where Pollux is being held, and slowly convinces Pollux that he is Troy, gaining information on the bomb's location. Meanwhile, Troy incredibly awakens from his coma and discovers his face missing. He calls his gang, and they force Dr. Walsh to transplant Archer's face onto him.

Troy visits the prison and surprises Archer. He taunts his nemesis, telling him that he burned down Dr. Walsh's lab with Walsh, Biondi, and Miller inside to eliminate all the evidence of their transplant, and will take over Archer's life. He leaves Archer to languish while he convinces Pollux to "reveal" the bomb's location in exchange for release from prison. Disarming his bomb in a dramatic fashion, Troy-as-Archer gains respect from Archer's fellow FBI colleagues. Troy becomes close to Archer's family, who Archer had neglected since he began seeking revenge against Troy, romancing his wife Eve and rescuing his daughter Jamie from an abusive boyfriend.

Archer escapes after staging a riot and retreats to Troy's headquarters. There, Archer meets Sasha, the sister of Troy's primary drug kingpin, and her son Adam, who reminds Archer of Michael. Archer learns that Adam is Troy's son, who he once had planned to put in foster care. Troy learns of Archer's escape and hastily assembles a team to raid his headquarters. The raid quickly turns into a bloodbath, killing numerous FBI agents and several members of Troy's gang, including Pollux; Archer, Sasha, and Adam are able to escape. Archer's supervisor, Director Victor Lazarro blames Troy for the numerous slayings. Troy, furious over Pollux's death, kills Lazarro, and makes it look like a heart attack. Troy-as-Archer is promoted to acting director as plans are made for Lazarro's funeral.

Archer finds safety for Sasha and Adam and approaches Eve. He persuades her to take a sample of Troy's blood and his own to compare their blood types at the hospital where she works as a doctor to prove he is Archer. Convinced of her husband's identity, she tells him that Troy will be vulnerable at Lazarro's funeral. At the ceremony, Archer finds that Troy has anticipated his actions and takes Eve hostage. Sasha arrives, and a gunfight ensues; Sasha manages to save Eve after taking a bullet. Archer promises a dying Sasha to take care of Adam and raise him away from criminal life.

Troy flees the church with Archer pursuing him. After killing two more federal agents, Troy briefly takes Jamie hostage, but she escapes by stabbing him with a butterfly knife that Troy had given her for self-defense. A speedboat chase ensues wherein Archer forces Troy to shore by collision, then bests Troy in a melee fight. Troy mutilates his/Archer's face to taunt him, but Archer impales Troy with a spear gun. Backup agents arrive and address Archer by name, having been convinced by Eve of Archer's true identity. After the face transplant surgery is undone, Archer returns home, adopting Adam into his family and keeping his promise to Sasha.

With an $80 million production budget, Face/Off made heavy use of action set pieces including several violent shootouts and a boat chase filmed in the Los Angeles area. The boat scene at the end of the film was shot in San Diego.[5]

Calling the brothers Castor and Pollux is a reference to Greek mythology; Castor and Pollux are the twins transformed by Zeus into the constellation Gemini.[6]

Face/Off was released in North America on June 27, 1997 and earned $23,387,530 on its opening weekend, ranking number one in the domestic box office. It went on to become the 11th highest domestic and 14th worldwide grossing film of 1997, earning a domestic total of $112,276,146 and $133,400,000 overseas for a total of worldwide gross of $245,676,146.[2]

The Region 1DVD of Face/Off was one of the first films to be released on the format on October 7, 1998.[citation needed] A 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition DVD was released on September 11, 2007 and the now-defunct HD DVD on October 30, 2007 in the United States.[7] The new DVD is a 2-disc set including 7 deleted scenes, an alternate ending, and several featurettes.[8]

The film-critics aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes records that 92% of 85 critical reviews were positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Travolta and Cage play cat-and-mouse (and literally play each other) against a beautifully stylized backdrop of typically elegant, over-the-top John Woo violence."[10] On Metacritic, the film received a metascore of 82 out of 100 from 25 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[11] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[12]

The role reversal between Travolta and Cage was a subject of praise, as were the stylized, violent action sequences. Critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four and remarked that, "Here, using big movie stars and asking them to play each other, Woo and his writers find a terrific counterpoint to the action scenes: All through the movie, you find yourself reinterpreting every scene as you realize the "other" character is "really" playing it."[13]Rolling Stone's Peter Travers said of the film, "You may not buy the premise or the windup, but with Travolta and Cage taking comic and psychic measures of their characters and their own careers, there is no resisting Face/Off. This you gotta see."[14]Richard Corliss of Time said that the film "isn't just a thrill ride, it's a rocket into the thrilling past, when directors could scare you with how much emotion they packed into a movie."[15]

Barbara Shulgasser of the San Francisco Examiner called the movie "idiotic" and argued that "a good director would choose the best of the six ways and put it in his movie. Woo puts all six in. If you keep your eyes closed during a Woo movie and open them every six minutes, you'll see everything you need to know to have a perfectly lovely evening at the cinema."[16]

Face/Off is said to have inspired Infernal Affairs. However, Infernal Affairs director Andrew Lau wanted to have a more realistic situation; instead of a physical face change, Lau wanted to have the characters swap identities.[17] The concept of "bian lian" or "change face", a technique traditionally used in Chinese Opera, may have been used here to depict the fluid and seamless morph of Chen and Lau's character's identities between the "good" and "bad" sides. Infernal Affairs in turn has spawned several adaptations, notably The Departed directed by Martin Scorsese which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.